Second Chances
by Kage no Ryunin
Summary: Kikyou's arrow didn't seal Inuyasha- it killed him. Given a new life and a new opportunity, they meet again by chance. The universe naturally strives for perfection- and is love not the most perfect thing there is?


**Hello. Gomen Nasai! I've been neglecting Reversed Reality lately, and Dragonlike Destiny is practically abandoned, but this is just a oneshot and I'll be back in business soon! Yay!**

**Reversed Reality shall have a new chapter in a few days . . . hopefully. School starts in a few days, so life is nuts.**

**This was inspired by the lack of Inuyasha/Kikyou fics, and the fact that Love the Way You Lie fits them sooooo perfectly. Enjoy!**

**IMPORTANT Please tell me your opinion of Satomi, Marci and Seiko. ! I've been stewing with these other characters for a completely original story, a book I've considered putting to Fictionpress. So, technically, I can avoid being sued for being hypocritical regarding the use of OCs. I'll include parts of the plot I'm considering for a story into this oneshot, so you can tell me if it has any potential, or if I should tweak a character, or if I should scrap it and make a new idea. **

**Not sure why I chose **_**Bloop**_ **as the breaker, but oh well. I couldn't come up with anything better.**

"What- Kikyou, I thought we . . ."

Tears filled Kikyou's eyes as Inuyasha fell silent, the sealing arrow taking effect. A moment later the mad adrenaline rush that she'd used vanished, and she toppled to the ground as her wound caught up with her. She could hear their voices, calling, but she only had eyes for her sister.

"The jewel . . . burn it with my body . . . please sister . . ."

Kaede wept, but she promised to fulfill Kikyou's dying wish. Kikyou smiled slightly.

"Thank you."

She slipped away into the growing black at the edges of her vision, and drew her final breath.

But for Goddess knows why, the sealing on the arrow dissipated the moment the oxygen left her lungs. The magic, which had not completely finished its job, was released and Inuyasha groaned. At that same second, the fatal wound was brought into reality and did its work. Without the spell on the arrow keeping him alive, Inuyasha died at nearly the same second as the woman he loved.

Their souls flew through the air and landed in a different place, in a different time, and were reborn for a second chance.

The second chance I gave them.

My name is Tenshi Satomi, and I am an all powerful being. My friends, Lunette Marci and no-family-name Seiko, are my helpers in this job. Long ago, long for us at least, we were humans like those we tell this story to. I lived in a tiny village in Japan, Tsukitori, where we know of Names. I myself am Angelic Wise Beauty. Marci's full name, in the land in which she lived, where one puts their family name last, was Marci Alexa Lunette, the Warlike Protector of the Little Moon, as befits her duties. Seiko has no family name, but his own suffices. Force, Truth.

We were a force to be reckoned with. My knowledge of names and people's thoughts was our intellectual base, Marci's quick anger and fierce disposition made her our physical might, and Seiko's connection with the universal energies was our spiritual guide and our logical one. We were guardians of a sort too, each of us with our own piece of Eternity to keep and protect.

I had the Yin Yang Talisman. Actually, you could say that it was a livelier version of the Shikon Jewel, A blue orb that I could harness the energies of, and use in battle. It was magnificent. Marci's job was the Fate's Blade, a dagger that she could morph into any weapon she wished. Seiko's gift was not tangible, but he could connect to the All-tide. As the name suggests, it is the tide of energy that ebbs and flows within every last molecule of this universe. He could influence it and sense disruptions.

Ah yes, we were powerful. But all power needs a purpose, and once we had completed our job and defeated the evil we were at a loss what to do. In the books they always go back to their peaceful lives and settle down, but we simply could not. Not while we had these powers, and not while we knew that other dimensions existed and tragedies occurred daily. After a goodbye to those who cared, we used the Talisman to contact the All-tide as a conscious being and asked it to allow us to become the worlds' righters of wrongs. It agreed, and we became what we are now.

We fix broken hearts, and give lovers second chances. We search through time and bring justice to those who received none. We are the force of Good, and enemies of Tragedy, Crime, and Evil.

We gave Inuyasha and Kikyou a second chance.

Now I watched as their souls twirled together, showing that their destinies were indeed intertwined through eternity. I called Seiko and his glowing golden form materialized beside me. I glanced at him as he smiled gently at the dancing spirits, his long and straight flaxen hair pulled back in a loose ponytail. I glanced down at my own hands, the blue light beneath my skin pulsing gently, and pushed my dark hair behind my ear. "Where shall we send them?"

**-Chances-**

**Seiko**

I turned to Satomi, biting my lip slightly. Truthfully, I didn't know. Should we send them back to their own time, to begin lives at the time they left their previous ones? Or to the past? Or perhaps to the future?

"Oi, Nameless! Kidlet! What are you doing?"

I rolled my eyes at Marci. Honestly, Satomi wasn't a Kidlet anymore. She'd only ever been two years younger, and it had only mattered when we had hardly any to spare. Nowadays none of us knew our exact age, and two years would be like a grain of sand on the world's largest beach. Never mind that my own nickname still applied. "We're trying to figure out where to send this pair." I gestured to the pair of sparkling lights that hovered in front of our faces.

Marci crossed her arms and popped her hip, the dull red glow from her form illuminating her brown eyes from behind. She walked up next to me and I tapped her arm. She blinked as the knowledge flooded her head. "Inuyasha and Kikyou, huh? In love and made to believe that they betrayed each other . . . Shikon Jewel? Hey, Kidlet, doesn't that sound kind of like your little Yin Yang?"

Satomi nodded. "Very much so. It isn't the same though."

"Yeah, whatever. Might I suggest sending them to the U.S in our time period? Minnestoa's been portal-purged and they'd have a good chance in the modern days."

I thought about it for a moment. Marci was right. Minnesota was a relatively calm state, one with no portals, and they would automatically be drawn to each other anyway. I nodded decisively. "I agree. Satomi?"

She nodded as well. "Minnesota in our time it is."

**-Chances-**

**Marci**

I grinned happily and cracked my knuckles."Let's get going then." I pulled out Fate's Blade and chopped off a lock of my curly strawberry blond hair that fell from a high side ponytail. I handed it to Kidlet and hacked off pieces of their hair too. Kidlet's was the hardest, because her hair was so dark I couldn't see it very well in the blackness of our personal void. I had to make sure I wouldn't lop her head off. If she'd worn it in a ponytail like Nameless it would have been easier, but she always refuses no matter how I ask.

Kidlet took the hairs and scrambled them so that they formed one big tuft. Then she unclasped the Talisman from her neck and tapped it to the hairs. They glowed with all of our colors, gold, blue and red, and made a mini explosion. The black space that surrounded us erupted in the three shades, and the two souls that hovered in front of us glowed ever brighter. One was a pale lilac, and I assumed that it was Kikyou. Her soul was about the same color as the jewel that she protected. The other was silver, and something about it reminded me of myself. I suppressed a grin. Apparently Inuyasha had a temper too. I wish I could meet the guy. . .

Nameless stepped forward and held his hands out, Kikyou landing on his left and Inuyasha on his right. The lights around us spun and popped like fireworks, and Nameless started glowing gold. Kidlet started glowing azure too, and I felt the familiar crimson take over my vision. Power buzzed in my senses and everything whirled. I could feel a pulling coming from the soul orbs, and a rift in the light appeared. They were sucked in and the power immediately died.

I lowered my arms, which I hadn't even realized I put up, and yawned. "Kay guys, what's next?"

Kidlet reached out and pulled a file out of nowhere. Dang, I'll never get used to this place. She flipped through it. "Some kids named Sasuke and Naruto. They found true love at age twelve, didn't realize it, Sasuke betrayed the village for power to kill his innocent brother who he didn't know was innocent, Naruto tries for years to bring him back, yadda yadda yadda . . . ah, there it is. They both eventually died in a giant explosion caused by a demon that was sealed inside Naruto."

I rolled my eyes and yawned. "Too complicated. If they were reborn, their souls would have too much extra baggage and they would remember themselves too early. Send them to Kage-chan. They need a full rewrite in their own time."** (LOL, needed to do this. Couldn't resist :D)**

Nameless glanced at me. "You sure? She'd probably drive Destiny nuts. You know how she gets with sob stories."

Kidlet reluctantly nodded. "Seiko's right. She'll probably break the Rule again and shove the poor kids into another World or something."

I shrugged lazily. "Unless you want to send them to Kono-chan. She'll talk them an earful, then when she finally lets them through they'll completely destroy what little peace the afterlife has. There's a reason that they don't allow ninjas in Asphodel, Elysium, or Eternal Punishment."

Nameless sighed and hung his head. "I guess Marci's right. We really have no options here." He grabbed the folder from Kidlet and put it on an invisible shelf. It vanished off to wherever the heck Kage-chan was now. Most likely off gallivanting in one of those little dimensions of hers that she loves so much.

I leaned over to Kidlet. "Do you feel as sorry for the squirts as I do?"

She snorted. "More."

**-Chances-**

Inuyasha had no freaking clue how it had happened.

One second he'd been down there at a table laughing with his buddies, drinking diet coke, and having a grand old time. The microphone man's babbling was meaningless blurbs, and the flashing lights were the last thing on his mind.

Not now.

The huge spotlight had suddenly moved. Like, really moved. Enough to go from one end of the room to the other and land on him. He'd blinked, held up a hand to keep the glare out of his eyes , and wondered what the crap was going on. The next thing he knew, the guys were shoving him and he was up on stage hazily realizing that the microphone man was talking about karaoke. The spotlight whirled again, and selected some random girl.

Inuyasha's heart sank. Brilliant. Now that he knew what was happening, he wished he didn't. He was getting randomly selected to sing a duet with a total stranger. Why was it always him? Oh yeah. His dad was a criminal. Right.

_**Bloop**_

Kikyou was surprisingly calm.

Not surprising to her friends, but to herself. Honestly, she thought that she would be completely reeling in a situation like this, but she wasn't. She was a decent singer, and the silver-haired guy on stage didn't look too shifty. She'd had her fill of shady characters.

She climbed the steps to the platform and was suddenly struck by the fact that the guy looked . . . familiar. She didn't know how, but he did. She felt like she knew him. But that was impossible. He was a total stranger and besides, she went to an all-girls school.

She stepped up to the mic and was taken aback by how out of it the guy seemed. He looked kind of dazed. She rolled her eyes. "Dude, whatever your name is, relax. It's not that big a deal. You're just supposed to sing."

If anything that made him more nervous. Sheesh. But the music was starting, and she turned to face the crowd, and for just a second she thought that she saw the guy again, but different out of the corner of her eye. His hair was the same, but there were funny little ears coming out the top of his head. He wore a weird baggy red outfit, and his fingernails were pointed. Kikyou stiffened and looked again, but he was back to his average appearance. Well, as average as you could get with silver hair.

_**Bloop**_

_That was . . . really weird._

Inuyasha resisted the urge to shake himself to clear the vision out of his head. For a moment he could have sworn that the random woman next to him was wearing a white shirt and red pants and had a bow and arrows set across her back. The vision had vanished when he'd blinked, so he simply shoved it to the back of his mind.

_Red: singer 1  
Blue: singer 2  
Green: both singers_

Inuyasha gulped. Crap. The lady had said he was supposed to sing, but what if he didn't know the song? That would seriously suck.

_Love the Way You Lie_

Inuyasha almost breathed a sigh of relief. Jake had had a crush on the singer of that one for a month, so he'd practically memorized the thing. He'd gotten lucky.

The background music started up and he took a deep breath. Cheers came from the crowd.

He read the lyrics appearing onscreen.

_On the first page of our story  
the future seemed so bright._

Odd, he felt like a meaning was behind those word, but he pushed the feeling aside like he did everything else.

And he started to sing.

_**Bloop**_

Kikyou had to admit, she was impressed. The dude had a decent voice. Sure, it was certainly rough around the edges and not brilliant by a long shot, but still.

Her own lyrics scrolled across the screen, and something struck a chord.

_But this thing turned out so evil  
don't know why I'm still surprised_

Something . . . something to do with the dog ears . . . her thoughts spiraled away from her control.

_**Bloop **_

_Even angels have their wicked schemes  
and you take that to new extremes._

Thoughts whirled in Inuyasha's head, fragments and pieces that were scraps of a whole picture if he could just _catch them_ . . .

Angel . . . beautiful . . . betrayed . . . arrow . . . hanyou . . . jewel . . .

_**Bloop**_

_And you'll always be my hero  
even though you've lost your mind._

I'm suddenly singing the song to this stranger . . . and it feels like he should be the one to hear the words. Savior . . . demon . . . power . . . hero . . . traitor . . .

_**Bloop**_

_Just gonna stand there and watch me burn_

Why did you do it? Do what? Betrayal . . .

_**Bloop**_

_But that's alright because I like the way it hurts_

Their two voices met, and Kikyou accidentally harmonized. The crowd whistled.

Love . . .

_**Bloop**_

_Just gonna stand there and hear me cry_

I feel the tears . . . demon, you . . . you thief . . .

_**Bloop**_

_But that's alright because I like the way you lie_  
_Love the way you lie_

Love . . . love you . . . Priestess . . . Hanyou . . .

_**Bloop**_

_There is gravel in our voices,  
glass is shattered from the fight._

Arrow . . . sacred . . . binding . . . you were not supposed to die! It was only supposed to bind you!

_**Bloop**_

_But I know that you will always win  
even when I'm right_

Miko . . . stronger than me . . . always . . . become human though . . . I wanted that life!

_**Bloop**_

_Just gonna stand there and watch me burn_

You . . . you traitor! You killed me! You stole it!

_**Bloop**_

_But that's alright because I like the way it hurts_

Why? Why would you try? I was going to become human . . . but your arrows don't miss . . .

_**Bloop**_

_Just gonna stand there and hear me cry_

The village . . . don't you touch them, hanyou!

_**Bloop**_

_But that's alright because I like the way you lie  
Love the way you lie_

But I do.

I do too.

I loved you.

As did I.

Kikyou . . .

Inuyasha . . .

**Darkness is overpowering. It is everywhere. Under your bed, beneath your feet, even the sun casts a shadow. Dark is unavoidable, as it always comes in a pair with the light. Dark is inexorable, unstoppable, for whatever counters we make it always finds a way. It gives us illusion, it can give us safety, but it also brings ends and sorrows.**

**But we can hold it at bay. The smallest light can slow its corruption.**

The power in the building suddenly sputtered, and the music died as the lights dimmed. Inuyasha and Kikyou both fell, clutching their skulls as memories of another life flooded in. But not just their own perspectives.

They saw from each other's eyes.

Inuyasha grabbed Kikyou's hand and they left the karaoke bar, each brimming with the truth.

They had not betrayed each other.

They had not been betrayed.

**All it takes to drive the dark away is a simple candle flame.**

_Aishiteru . . . Gomen nasai._

_I love you . . . I'm sorry._

I smiled from my perch in the heavens down at the souls we had helped to save. Marci and Seiko stood on either side of me, and their smiles were just as bright. Love deserves every chance, and Inuyasha and Kikyou had just received theirs.

We wordlessly turned away from the sight, prepared to help the next pair, but the sense of rightness stayed with us from then to eternity.

**Love is more than a candle.**

**Love can ignite the stars**


End file.
